By NITZ ARANCON
Correspondent
THE military yesterday claimed to have foiled an alleged plan by the New People’s Army to carry out bomb attacks in Mindanao with the arrest of two suspected rebels in Bukidnon on Wednesday.
Brig. Gen. Restituto Padilla, Armed Forces spokesman, told reporters that the arrested suspects–brothers Ruel and Ramil Calolot–were on a bombing mission.
Padilla’s pronouncements came as three groups of activists started separate investigations into the arrest of the Calolots in Purok 8, Barangay Kiburiao, Quezon, Bukidnon, on Wednesday. The siblings, according to the Camp Evangelista spokesman Capt. Joe Patrick Martinez, are members of the NPA and had explosive materials with them.
The groups Karapatan, Kasama Mo-Bukidnon, and Ogyon started looking into the arrests of the Calolot brothers after the representative of Anakpawis sought an investigation.
The military alleged that Ruel is a bomb expert of the NPA, and an Anakpawis ID was seized from him by soldiers, bolstering allegations made by the military that Maoist rebels were receiving support from some party-list groups represented in the Lower House.
The siblings are detained at the Quezon police station at presstime, and were charged with illegal possession of explosive.
Anakpawis Rep. Arnel Casilao called for an independent investigation into the Calolot brothers’ case, said Ireneo Ubarde, Anakpawis coordinator for northern Mindanao.
Ubarde said Casilao wants to know if the military allegations against the Calolots are true or not, and if they were really caught with explosives, following a fierce exchange of firepower between government troops and a group of rebels in Quezon town.
“Ang ilang makuha nga information sa pagka arrest ni Ruel ug Ramil ila tong i-validate, ug kon validated na, ayha pa dayon ta maghimog action kon unsay atong angayan buhaton,” Ubarde said.
But Ubarde said he suspected that the explosive materials allegedly seized from the siblings were planted.
Ubarde said the siblings were just farmers, and not armed rebels.
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